Many electrical connectors are employed in environments where forces may be exerted on the wires which extend from the electrical connectors. These forces can damage the electrical terminations of the wires to the terminals in the housings of the connectors. Electrical connectors with a large number of wires are particularly susceptible to having damaged electrical terminations within the connector housing. For example, wires from one connector may tangle with wires from other connectors such that the movement of any one connector may damage the termination of wires in other connectors. The tangling of wires can also make the tracing of wires during troubleshooting operations difficult to achieve.
Prior art electrical connectors have employed covers, boots or the like on the connector housing to orient or dress the wires. Some prior art wire dress covers define a unitary member having an aperture through which the plurality of wires pass. Covers of this type generally are effective, but complicate the termination and assembly process. More particularly, the cover may have to be mounted over the wires prior to termination and prior to inserting the terminated wires into the housing. Repairs or replacement of damaged or defective leads after termination and insertion is similarly complicated by the need to extract one lead from the aperture in the cover and insert another lead therethrough. This is particularly difficult if the cover tightly engages the wires to contribute to either sealing or strain relief.
The prior art further includes wire covers that can be mounted to the connector after termination and after proper seating of the terminals in the connector. These prior art connectors have included a unitary cover effectively defining a channel mounted to the rear end of the electrical connector housing. Other prior art connectors have included multi-component housings including a plurality of components for engaging the wires passing into the electrical connector housing.
Other prior art connectors include wire dress covers which are easily inserted and removed from the housing of the connector. One such wire dress cover is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,802. The connector includes a channel on the rear face into which the wire dress cover is slidably engagable. The wire dress cover includes a rib for slidable engagement in the channel and a locking projection for lockingly engaging the housing after a full seating thereon. The wire dress cover includes a slot extending centrally therein to enable the cover to be pinched for disengaging the locking projections from the housing. In certain embodiments the wire dress cover is defined by a pair of wire dress cover shells which are lockingly engagable with one another.
While the wire dress covers of the prior art are effective for organizing wires and for preventing damage to the electrical terminations, in order to provide maximum protection from the environment, the wire dress covers are often molded as a one-piece, solid member which prevents any type of unwanted material, such as water or solid particles, from entering the wire dress cover and adversely effecting the electrical terminations. However, as electronic devices and connectors become more sophisticated, more current and more electrical terminations are required, thereby generating more heat in the wires and at the electrical terminations. Most of these prior art wire dress covers have not been constructed to provide sufficient heat exchange or heat dissipation.
It would, therefore, be beneficial to provide a wire dress cover which would allow for heat to be dissipated from the wires and the electrical terminations. It would also be beneficial to provide such a heat dissipating wire dress cover which provides protection against unwanted material, such as water, from effecting the electrical terminations.